The leader of a group trying to build a science center in Northwest Arkansas believes 2020 will be a big year in the project's development.
"I think we're going to tie up some loose ends and move forward, settle on a site and hopefully announce a funding partner," said Katherine Auld, board chairwoman of NWA Space and an assistant professor at Northwest Arkansas Community College.
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Visit www.nwa.space for more information on NWA Space
NWA Space, a nonprofit organization, for several years has worked toward its vision of a science center with an observatory, planetarium, robotics lab and science exhibits. The centerpiece will be a 36-foot-long refracting telescope given to NWA Space in 2017 by Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.
The plan is for a building of about 35,000 square feet that will cost $30 million, Auld said.
NWA Space announced in 2018 that it would build the science center at Kathleen Johnson Memorial Park in Lowell. Since then, however, someone else has approached the group with an alternative site proposal, Auld said.
"So everything as far as where the science center is going to go is up in the air, and we're trying to figure out where we can get the best availability to the community and the best funding," she said.
Lowell's City Council in April 2018 approved granting NWA Space 20 acres in the park about a mile west of Interstate 49.
The site is ready for construction, said Karen Davis, city community development director.
"We've got the water and sewer lines, so it's pretty much waiting on them," Davis said. "I know it takes time to raise the money. That is a pretty large establishment."
No contract has been signed between the city and NWA Space. NWA Space would have six months to submit a development plan once a contract is signed, Davis said.
Fundraising isn't as far along as Auld would like. NWA Space will host a gala at 6 p.m. March 14 at the Lakepoint event center in Bella Vista. They've done other fundraising events, but this will be the group's first dinner event.
"We're going to do a gala, sort of around a science mystery theme and have fun and see if we can't raise a bunch more money," Auld said.
The organization also has been making presentations to potential donors, she said.
PB2 Architecture and Engineering, a Rogers firm, has been hired to design the center.
The target audience is children and young adults from middle school through college. NWA Space has a group of teens recommending what features would appeal most to people of their age and get them to keep coming back, Auld said.
"To be financially viable, we have to be a place they like coming to," she said.
Trey Lane, an architect and virtual design and construction specialist for Nabholz Construction in Rogers, is an NWA Space board member. Lane was part of a three-person team in 2018 winning a NASA competition to design a habitat for humans on Mars. NWA Space's science center is the kind of place he wishes he had access to when he was growing up in Louisiana, he said.
"It's been a pretty exciting thing to be a part of," Lane said. "I think it would be cool for the area. A lot of my involvement has been in reviewing the design and the plans as far as operations and actual physical plans for the science center, making sure those meet our needs."
The science center would be a big help in retaining talent in Northwest Arkansas, he said.
"We have a lot of bright people here, but if we don't capitalize on their interests, we run the risk of losing them to other markets. So to create something like this is really critical," he said.
Metro on 01/02/2020